Taken
by Hammsters
Summary: This is a possible sequel to Fate of the Boys. Leah and Jack are grown up and happy. Roger doesn't like it. At all. Some things have gotta change, What will they do when their youngest daughter is kidnapped by the menace from the dark days of their past?
1. Chapter 1

**Yola readers! This is just an idea I got for a possible sequel. I don't know if I'll continue or not, but if you all like it I'll probably try to continue. I won't update any of my stories nearly as often as I would like to, but I'll try. I've got running camp and tennis camp and theater camp and vacation next week, but I'll do my best to find the time to write more. Anyways, you probably don't care, so I'll stop rambling. TO the story!**

It's the dead of night. The sky is darker than black, the stars having vanished into the oblivion. Not a soul stirs except for one. Not even the wind dares to blow, not a branch to sway, and shatter the eerie silence. Not a sound but the subtle click of a lock as the one person who doesn't sleep turns the corner of a stolen credit card in the narrow slit. The person, a young man of no more than twenty eight, slips through the entrance of one poor, unsuspecting young family. The young man, with no intentions of robbing them, moves gracefully, soundlessly, through each room, each stride containing all the purpose, precision, and prowess of a hunter. His eyes seem to glow in the blackness, two dark windows to his black unforgiving soul. He slips carefully around furniture and toys, noiselessly up the stairs, moving with the grace of a snake and feeling with the venom of one. His focus is clear, his resolve strong, and intentions set in stone. They will be punished just as he was.

Dark brown eyes squinted, he glares into the dark in search of the one room he targets. A cruel, joyless grin creeps across his pale face as his eyes lock on the target. Striding confidently, the young man walks into the room without doubt, regret, and least of all, guilt. Through thin rays of silver-blue moonlight, he sees a crib. A little girl, two years old, lies sleeping peacefully within its white painted walls, tucked securely beneath thin pink blankets. There was a reason it had to be _this _small toddler, not her brother or her sister, and that was the striking resemblance she bore to her mother. The same knowing emerald eyes, wavy brown locks, and light dusting of freckles across the bridge of her nose. Hatred pulses through the young man's veins and revulsion burns red hot in his icy heart. Yes, it has to be this girl.

He approaches the crib, silent as the grave, and reaches in to lift the dreaming child. He rocks her back and forth in his arms, cradling her like a newborn baby. Just then, the older daughter awakens. Upon seeing the strange man holding her beloved little sister, she screams her little lungs out.

"Mommy! Daddy!" she shrieks. The young woman and her dear red-headed husband come rushing in. They instantly see the familiar young man standing in back, holding their daughter with one leg already out the window.

"Roger." The red-headed father gasps under his breath in immediate recognition. The young man turns to face the couple, a wicked smile adorning his face and an evil glint lighting up his dark eyes. He holds one finger up to his lips.

"Sh, you'll wake the baby," He whispers darkly, then disappearing into the endless night.

**So what'd you think. If I continue this it's probably gonna stay in third person just for convenience, but I might switch into Leah or Jack's point of view every once and a while. If you like it, I'd love to hear it. Reviews pretty please!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey. I know, millions of other stories, blah blah blah, but I don't like abandoning stories! So I figure, maybe I can still update this one every now and then. I don't know. I'll see what you guys think of it. Enjoy!**

"What the _hell _kind of organization are you running over there? My little girl has been taken by that- that _psycopath _and you haven't even started a search?" Jack Merridew, world renown doctor and extremely pissed off father, yelled into the phone. "No! I will not calm down! That lunatic has my daughter and I won't calm down until you dipshits get off your lazy asses and start looking for her!" The poor secretary on the phone with him spoke quickly and frantically. "Don't you dare hang up on-" The phone went dead and he slammed the phone back into the wall, then turned to his wife. "Fuck! She just hung up on me! I'm calling back, I'm calling back and man oh man, is she gonna get an earful!" He reached for the phone and began jabbing the buttons furiously. Leah snatched it out of his hands.

"Sweetie, you need to calm down." She said soothingly. "You're not seventeen anymore. You're a grown man, and grown men don't scream at poor, innocent secretaries over the phone." He groaned.

"But they haven't even started looking for her yet." Leah wrapped her arms around him in an attempt to calm him down.

"I know honey, but they're doing the best that they can. They can't just go on a rampage, people might get hurt if they did. They need to be careful about this. Roger is a dangerous man, and they don't want to do anything that upsets him and puts Amber at greater risk." She reasoned.

"How can you be so calm?" He yelled, suddenly taking his anger out on his wife. "This is your daughter! Don't you remember what he did to you Leah? Do you want that to happen to her too?" Leah did remember. She remembered all of it. The stinging of the long, rough vine whipping against her back. His long, grody fingernails digging into her open wounds. She remembered how the hunters hit her, scratched her, tore open her skin even more.

She remembered what he did to Sam.

The thought of her adopted brother's twin's horrible fate brought tears to her eyes. She'd been with him when he died. She remembered how he'd asked her to look after Eric for him, the brother he'd done everything to save. It was because of her and Eric he'd been beaten so badly. He'd set her free, the only leverage Roger had against Jack. He'd tried to fight Roger to save his brother, despite being smaller, weaker, and almost three years younger. She remembered better than anyone what Roger could do. What all of them could do. Jack saw how the memories hurt her.

"God, Leah, I didn't mean-" She cut him off.

"It's fine Jack, I know you didn't mean it." She ran a hand through his disheveled red hair affectionately. "And trust me, I'm as worried about her as you. But I trust that whatever happens, it'll be for the best. And Ralph got some of his military buddies, they're out looking right now." Jack scowled at the sound of his former enemies name. Leah slapped him on the arm. "Oh would you get over it Jack! You're twenty-nine years old, it was twelve years ago, it's time to bury the hatchet. Besides, Ralph's my best friend. I'd like for you to at least try to hide your hatred for him." Jack sighed.

"Well I'm sorry I'm not too fond of a guy who was putting the moves on my wife." She gave him a look.

"We were sixteen! And besides, you and I weren't even dating yet." Jack mumbled something that sounded a lot like "still, he did it."

"And I feel the need to remind you, he has a girlfriend." She replied. Then she turned to the window. "Who he better be popping the question to soon!" She yelled at her neighbor's house. Ralph lived next door. He couldn't be out on the search right now, his 'legs' had been giving him issues. It was about time he got a new pair from the doctor, but Dr. Merridew just loved to watch him struggle. The jerk.

"When I'm ready!" He yelled back. Leah laughed.

"Now you need to calm down," she said to her husband. "Like I said everything will work out for the best." He pulled her into a hug and sighed into her hair.

"I know. I just want my baby back." She hugged him tightly and kissed him on the cheek.

"I know sweetie. But everything will be okay."

Only, it wasn't.

* * *

><p>"Daddy! Would you hurry up!" Sixteen year old Amber McAllistor screamed at her adoptive father. "I'm supposed to be meeting Ally at Forever 21 right now!" Her dad gave her a resentful look. Honestly, he was sometimes more like a brother than a dad.<p>

"This wouldn't be a problem if you'd just passed your driver's test." He reminded her.

"It was those goddamn pedestrians! They're everywhere!'' She cried.

"No, I think the instructor was more concerned by the fact that you were yelling at the stop lights." Mr. McAllistor replied. "I have no idea where you get it from." Actually he did. He remembered Leah, very well in fact. He'd been so disgusted by her very existence, right from the start. He'd been practically giddy when he discovered her youngest daughter was so like her. It would be the sweetest form of revenge, killing her, yet letting her live with it. But when he had the girl, something in him wouldn't let him hurt her. He just couldn't do it. So instead, he'd raised her as his own daughter. Maybe one day the two of them would work together to kill her real parents. He sighed. It was a little too much to hope for. On this thought, Roger grabbed the keys, hopped in the car, and drove her to the nearest mall to meet her friend.

As he drove away, he had a fleeting fear. What if she was ever found? He knew for a fact that even after the Merridew family crumbled to pieces, and Leah took her oldest children and left Jack, his former island rival never gave up looking for his daughter. He'd become desperate. Ralph and Leah looked too, but they were never on close terms with Jack. Maybe, as long as things stayed the way they were, they'd just give up. Roger saw a flash of gold out of the corner of his eye and his car screeched to a stop. He'd thought for a second...no. Ralph didn't look like that anymore. He was forty two, not sixteen. He had prosthetic legs from the spinal chord injury he'd ordered Robert to give him. Still, he'd looked so much like him. He drove again and his fears vanished. He didn't need to worry about Amber. She knew how to look after herself. And he was right. She'd always been independent, yet she never questioned the lies he told her to cover up her mysterious past. Not one question.

But then she met the blonde boy.

**Not bad huh? Part of the reason I didn't update was because I didn't know if I wanted it to be about Leah and Jack or Amber and her mystery blonde boy. I decided on the latter. Hope you liked. Please review if you don't want me to abandon ship!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Yay! New chapter! Fast too. Nobody really voted on my poll, so I had to improvise and pick mystery blonde boy's name myself. I know this probably isn't that important, since it says sequel right in the summary, but if you haven't already done so I'd like for you to read The Fate of the Boys before you read anymore of this story. Now, I need to warn you, it's pretty poorly written and there's some really corny parts in there, but it's got a pretty good plot so I think you'll like it. And, also, I changed Amber's friend's name to Drea because I realized that whenever I don't know what to name a character I name her Ally, or Sam if it's a boy, and I thought that I needed to make a change up. So don't get confused. Enjoy the chapter peeps!**

"There you are!" Drea yelled as Amber ran into Forever 21 and jumped on her back. "Can you get off me?"

"Nah, I'm good." Drea glared at her and bent backwards, causing Amber to fall flat on her back. "Okay, OUCH!" Her best friend laughed and helped her to her feet.

"You better have been on death's door, or have some other good excuse for being later, because otherwise you're dead." Amber tossed her head back and groaned.

"Ugh, my dad. Again." Drea nodded. This was her usual excuse. Roger had always been rather reluctant to let his daughter out and risking her getting caught, though the two girls just assumed he was being protective. That, and that he thought Drea was a bad influence, which was very true. He didn't want her getting the kind of attention Drea usually demanded. Really, he'd rather she get no attention whatsoever. Drea took a good look at Amber.

"Ew, what are you wearing!" As usual, her dad had taken one look at what she was wearing and made her change into baggy jeans and a huge sweatshirt. Remember, he didn't want her getting any attention. All it would take was one person to wise up and call the cops to have him arrested. At sixteen, Amber was the spitting image of her mother, and other than the hair color and the eye color, her sister. She even had the same pixie cut her mother had been so excited about at her age, when she'd first gotten stuck on the island. No one would take too good a look at her wearing that.

"It sucks right?" Drea nodded, her eyes widened dramatically.

"No worries Ams, I thought this would happen, so," She opened up her purse and showed the inside to Amber. Inside was one of her cutest outfits. "I brought you a change of clothes. Feel free to fawn over me." Amber hugged her tightly.

"Thank you thank you thank you!" She squealed. Drea laughed again.

"C'mon, let's get you to a changing room. Wouldn't want anyone to see you in that filth." Drea grabbed Amber's hand and dragged her to the nearest changing room, then shoved her in, tossing the clothes in her face. Wasn't she a dream? Amber changed, tossing the clothes her father had forced her to wear away like they were diseased. She saw that Drea had given her options, the angel she was. She could wear a striped halter and a super mini skirt, or short-shorts and a t-shirt with a t-rex lying on its stomach and its arms reaching desperately for the ground that read, 'T-Rex hates push ups.' _Hmm, such a difficult decision. _Amber thought. She pulled on the graphic t-shirt and shorts (another thing she inherited from her mother was her taste in clothing), then shook her head at the micro-mini. _It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's Super Mini Skirt! Saving distressed boys the precious time it takes to tell the skanks from the uber sluts! _She picked the clothes up, walked out of the dressing room, and handed them to Drea.

"Thanks again Dre," Drea threw her arm around her.

"No prob, Ambi." The two girls walked out of the store and began strutting (they didn't just walk anywhere, no they had to strut. Amber got _that _trait from Jack) through the mall.

"Kate!" They heard a boy calling behind them. They turned and saw a blonde boy sprinting from the doors towards them. A very cute blonde boy at that. "Katie!" He reached them and then reddened. "Oops. You're not Katie." He said to Amber. She smiled.

"Well that's a relief. I'd be having one serious identity crisis if I was." The boy laughed.

"I'm really sorry. I was supposed to meet my friends by the food court, but our families just moved her, so I have no idea where the food court is. I've been looking for them for ten minutes hoping to make it easier." He explained. "You seriously look just like my friend, only she has red hair. And she's older. Sorry about the mix up." Drea smiled and batted her eyes at the boy, ever the flirt, and elbowed Amber so she'd do the same. She didn't.

"It's fine. If you want, we can walk you there." Amber offered.

"Oh, I wouldn't want to bother you." He said.

"No, it's not a bother. We were just headed there to get some Starbuck's anyways." He smiled.

"Thanks, that'd be great!" He said, thankfully. "I'm Ricky."

"I'm Amber, and my friend who looks like she's jammed something in her eyes is Drea." Drea elbowed her again, harder this time, and Amber laughed. The three of them began walking quietly and Amber awkwardly tried to make conversation. "So, are you going to go to Chancelor High?" She asked. He nodded.

"Yea, I'm a junior, how about you?" Amber nodded.

"Yea, we're both juniors too."

"Cool." Awkward silence. "So what's the school like?" Amber mentally thanked Ricky for the question, because she had _many _interesting things to say about her classmates. A few minutes later, they were all cracking up.

"So let me get this straight, she keeps a jar of peanut butter in all her desks and puts chap stick on her stomach?" Ricky laughed.

"Yea! She's done it since we were little kids!" Drea said.

"Dude, that's messed up!" They laughed some more then tried to calm down. "What are the classes like?" Amber thinks about this.

"Hmm... I don't know. I think I'd have to go to tell you about that." He smiles. "Actually, it's Drea that skips class. I just sleep during it." Ricky nods his approval.

"Nice." He replies. "This place sounds great. My old school sucked. It was really small, and everyone knew absolutely everything about each other. And as much fun as staging World War III using pencils and staples as ammunition was, the repeated "D-day" got kind of old."

"What was your version of D-Day?" Amber asked.

"Well, some people called it D-day just because it started with a D, it didn't have anything to do with World War II. Whenever we misbehaved at our old school, we'd get demerits. One day, every boy in freshman and sophomore year got caught in the middle of a 'battle' in the lunch room, and 100 kids got demerits. We called it the demerit disaster and repeated it every month. I think I spent more time in that detention room than my own house." Amber and Drea laughed.

"Ricky!" They hear a girl call. Two similar looking kids, a boy and a girl, ran up.

"Where ya been man?" The boy asked.

"I got lost. Then I got this girl, Amber, confused with Katie, and after explaining the whole thing she and her friend offered to show me where the food court was." The boy smirked slightly, glancing at me and Drea.

"Ooh, you got lost, huh? It's a good thing these nice, _pretty_ girls came and found you." Amber got a good look at Ricky's friends. They were both pretty good looking. The girl had dark red hair that fell just below her shoulders and emerald green eyes, much like her own. The boy was about six feet tall, maybe a little more, and sturdily built, with flaming red hair and twinkling blue eyes. They were obviously brother and sister, and clearly at least two years older than Drea, Ricky and Amber. Something about the two of them seemed extremely familiar to her.

"Ain't he just a stud with directions?" The girl said teasingly. "My name's Katie, this is my brother Sam, and obviously you've met our itty bitty little neighbor Ricky." Ricky glared at her.

"Shut up Katie." She grinned at him.

"Aw, you know I'm just teasing." He stuck his tongue out at her and she turned back to Amber and Drea, as did her brother.

"Don't tell me, don't tell me, I wanna guess." Sam said, examining their faces closely. "You're Amber," he said, pointing at her, "And you're Drea." They nodded.

"Yea, how'd you know?" Drea asked.

"Ricky said he got you confused with Katie, and you do kind of look like her." He replied.

"I think she looks more like mom when she was younger." Katie argued. Sam shrugged. Amber had this nagging feeling at the back of her mind, and as hard as she tried, she couldn't shake it off.

"So, are you guys going to Chancelor too?" Drea asked, changing the subject. Sam and Katie shook their heads.

"Nah, we already graduated." Sam said. "I'm a sophomore at Bradley University, and Katie's a sophomore at U of I."

"And you're friends with a sixteen year old?" Amber asked.

"Eh. Ricky's okay enough. We grew up next door to each other, and his dad is best friends with our mom, so he's kind of like a little brother to us." Katie explained.

"Plus, his mom pays us twenty bucks each for filling her in on the stuff he doesn't tell her." Sam whispered to them. "We're making easy money off this kid!" Ricky punched him in the shoulder. Katie's phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out.

"Ah, shit! Ricky, Sam, our parents need us back. Something about a lead." Katie said. "Sorry to run out on you guys, but we have to go, it's important. It was nice meeting you two!"

"later guys!" Sam said with a wave. The twins jogged off, but Ricky lagged behind.

"So, would you maybe wanna hang out sometime?" He asked hopefully. Amber nodded.

"Yea, that'd be great!" Drea and Amber traded numbers with Ricky, and then he had to go catch up to Sam and Katie before he got lost again.

"He was cute!" Drea exclaimed as soon as he was out of earshot. Amber laughed.

"You should ask him out." Drea grinned mischeviously.

"Oh, not me." She replied.

"Why not? He'd so go out with you." Amber assured her. Drea's grin returned.

"I don't know, it wasn't my ass he was checking out." Amber slapped her on the arm and her best friend laughed.

"Drea!" She laughed more.

"You like him don't you?" Amber turned red. "You two would be cute together. And don't you deny a thing, he was _so _flirting with you." Amber rolled her eyes.

"Yea, whatever you say Dre."

"Ricky's not really my type anyways. But Sam, that kid was a total hottie. Think he'd go for a younger girl?" Drea asked thoughtfully. Amber laughed.

"A younger girl? Drea, if he dated you it'd be cradle robbing." She teased. Drea slapped her arm and they both laughed. "C'mon, there's a Starbuck's hot chocolate with my name on it. I hear it, it calls out to me." They laughed again and headed towards the Starbuck's in the food court.

**Holy bajeebus that was long. 1,943 words to be exact, not including the author's note at the beginning. I know it's painfully obvious, but still, why do you think Sam and Katie seem so strangely familiar to her? And who do you think the mysterious Mr. Ricky, neighbor de Sam and Katie is? Huh? And what do you think of Drea and Amber? Have I made Amber too similar to Leah? I think I might have. Whatevs, just please oh please review, I was so excited about the reaction I got to the last chapter, I'm so glad you liked it. And I'd really like you to check out some of my other stories if you can. Reviews would be nice!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey, well I got an overwhelming amount of reviews for the last chapter, more than I've gotten for any chapter of a Lord of the Flies story beofre, so all of you just take a moment to pat yourself on the back. To be quite honest, I'm not sure why anyone liked The Fate of the Boys- I personally thought it was rather suckish- and I'm not very much surer of why people like this, but since you do, as long as you all review like that there will always be chapters of Taken coming out. THere's not much plot development in this chapter unless you look kind of close, but I hope you'll still like it anyway!**

Amber threw her arm out with as much force as she could and felt the corners of her mouth twitch up slightly as her fist made contact. She then pulled her arm back to her side as quickly as she could and punched again with the other. The girl she was fighting rocked backwards on her heels, a sign that she was growing weaker. Amber allowed herself to smirk this time. She leaned her weight on her back foot and delivered a swift kick to the girls stomach, grunting slightly The girl's knees buckled and this time she fell to the mat. Their instructor grinned at Amber and clapped her on the shoulder.

"Well done Amber," He said approvingly. Amber helped the other girl to her feet and then went to get a drink of water. In ten seconds flat, she'd done her shoelace check, guzzled down some water, wiped the sweat from her face, adjusted her gloves and was back in the center of the ring for practice. There were very few things she had in common with her adoptive dad, and at the very top of that brief list was their twisted obsession with violence: violent video games, boxing, kickboxing, karate, wrestling, movies rated R for gore, etc. Roger couldn't get enough of it, she'd grown up with it, and now she loved it about as much as he did.

Amber's training partner had only gone one round with her and she was already pretty beat up. Amber really hoped she had some great cover up, because that was one helluva shiner she was sprouting. The instructor blew his whistle and the girl tried to get a jump start on the fighting this time, sending a very poorly executed left hook flying toward Amber's face. She easily ducked it. _Too easy. _Amber gave her a good hard punch in the stomach then one to the face, feeling immense satisfaction as the girl stumbled back drunkenly. Next she went for the roundhouse kick, which nearly sent the other girl toppling to the floor. _Man, just a little harder, she'd be down. Next time. _Amber took one angry swing at her, an incredibly sloppy one, and the girl easily dodged it. She was about to go for the win, punching between the fists beneath the chin, when and excited squeal split the air.

"Amber! You'll never guess what I just found out!" Drea burst into the gym, briefly wrinkling her nose in disgust at the smell of countless sweat kickboxers. Her best friend's excitement distracted Amber just long enough for her opponent to land a perfect punch to her eye. The shock made her lose her balance and she landed hard on her ass. _Damn. _The girl came and helped her up.

"Nice arm you got there." And the sportsmanship award goes to Amber McAllistor! She smiled sheepishly.

"Thanks. Sorry, I didn't mean to hit you that hard." Amber smiled.

"It's all right. Now we're even. Black eye for a black eye." Out of the corner of her eye, Amber saw Drea beckoning her emphatically. She kind of looked like a little kid that _really _had to go to the bathroom. "Can you tell Mr. Barnes I'll be right back. Apparently my friend has something important to say." The girl nodded and Amber walked over the sidelines.

"Guess what Amber! You know those two houses on my block that have been for sale for, like, forever?" Drea started the second Amber was within earshot.

"No, Drea I'm absolutely fine. It's not like I'm getting a black eye or anything. No, go right on with your news," Amber said sarcastically. Drea didn't seem to be paying any attention to her.

"And you remember those kids we met at the mall? Katie and her shmexy brother Sam and their hot friend Ricky who, by the way, was totally checking you out!" Drea continued as though Amber hadn't said a word. "_They're _the families that moved into those two houses! So now you and Ricky can, like, fall in love or eat chocolate cake or something romantic like that!" In Drea's mind, anything involving chocolate was the epitome of romance.

"Lovely," Amber replied as if there was nothing in the world that interested her less. "I wonder where they keep the ice packs locked up in this joint." Drea chose this moment to smack her upside the head.

"What you talkin' 'bout fool! There is are two unbelievably shmexy guys living on my street, and you're thinking about ice packs?" Drea shook her head at her. "_You make me sick." _

"Lovely." Amber repeated. "Later!" Before she could escape, Drea pounced into the ring, grabbed Amber's ear and began dragging her out the old fashioned way.

"I will have you and that boy falling madly in love with each other if it kills me Amber McAllistor!" She yelled dramatically. "If it kills me, if it kills you, if it kills Ricky! As long as it doesn't kill Sir Hotness, cuz then I'd have nothing to stare at from up in heaven!"

"But Dre! I'm in the middle of class!"

"Not anymore you're not! Come on McAllistor, get your head in the game." Drea shook her by the shoulders. "There is a hot guy at stake. Aw man Amber, what are you wearing?"

"Um, I don't know, head gear, boxing gloves, you know, the things I need for Kickboxing practice which I'm supposed to be in right now!"

"Come on Amber," Drea sighed. "We have to get you prettied up." _If I die, it will be death by accessories. Lovely._

* * *

><p>After escaping from the diabolical clutches of the evil Dr. Drea, Amber suited up in her Spandex and joined Super Mini Skirt in the age old battle against fashion crimes. Or, well, something like that. To be quite frank, she suited up in her waitress uniform, which was sadly lackng in Spandex and was in itself a fashion crime, and joined the crew and Rusty's Burgers in the age old battle against bad service. The fight against cheesy restraunt mottos such as 'Service With a Smile!' was taken up by none.<p>

Dressed in an itchy red blouse and a black mini skirt that would have given her real father a heart attack, but only made Roger mildly uncomfortable, Amber glanced longingly at the clock and picked up a tray from the kitchen counter. _Just hang in there Amber,_ she thought supportively to herself, _One hour till showtime, that's all. _With that and a quick prayer that her friend PJ, the idiot busboy, wouldn't smush cherry pie in her face today, she put on her absolute cheesiest smile and walked into the restraunt.

"Hello, welcome to Rusty's Burgers!" She greeted a family as she walked up to their table. "My name is Amber, I'll be your waitress this evening. Can I start you off with something to drink?" She looked around the table and was slightly caught off guard. The first person she noticed was a forty something year old woman who could probably pass for twenty if she didn't look so sleep deprived. Her chestnut brown hair was cropped short, and despite her obvious tiredness her emerald green eyes were alert. She looked unexplicably familiar. Sitting there with the woman who could only be their mother were none other than Sam and Katie, the kids she'd met at the mall. They were all still looking at their menus. The woman was the first to speak.

"Um, would you mind giving us a few more minutes? We're waiting for some other-" The woman looked up and her eyes widened slightly. Apparently something about Amber was familiar to her too. She shook it off quickly, "-people."

"Oh yea, that's fine, I'll be back in a few minutes." She was about to walk away when Katie looked up.

"Hey, I remember you!" She exclaimed. Amber turned back around and smiled. The woman grabbed Katie's wrist gently and shook her head as if she'd done something wrong. "Relax mom, we met Amber at the mall the other day." Something in both Katie's and her mom's eyes changed slightly, as if something about Amber's name set them off. Once again, they shook it off. Sam took no notice of his family's strange behavior.

"Yea, that little dunce neighbor of ours got lost, as usual, and Amber had to help him find us," he said teasingly, even though his friend wasn't even there to be teased. Katie elbowed him for Ricky. Amber was about to walk away, but Katie began chatting her up like they'd been best friends their whole lives. Amber didn't really mind though, Katie was a pretty funny girl it turned out.

"Hey Leah!" A voice called from a few feet behind them. Amber turned and saw Ricky pushing a man with slightly greying hair in a wheelchair. It was the man, who looked just like an older version of Ricky, who spoke. "Long time no see, huh kids?" He said, grinning. Katie and Sam's mom, who was apparently named Leah, looked concerned.

"Are your legs bothering you again Ralph? I thought Lyza was going to take you to the doctor to have him check that out." Ricky's dad, Ralph, just rolled his eyes.

"You worry too much! Maybe I'm just feeling lazy. A man has a right to feel lazy still doesn't he? Of course, my son here could certainly use more in the muscle department, so pushing me around won't be hurting him any," he said teasingly. Ricky rolled his eyes, and then blushed upon seeing Amber standing there awkwardly. "Lyza's out parking the car, she told me to order for her." Ricky pushed his dad's chair up to the table and then sat down next to Sam.

"Why don't we start ordering so the waitress doesn't have to stand around watching our fun family sitcom all day," He said, smiling apologetically at her. The group proceeded to order drinks and Amber was eventually able to go back to the kitchen to get their drinks. She returned to their table and saw Ricky paging through Help Wanted ads in the paper. She gave them each their drinks and turned to him.

"Are you looking for a job?" She asked. He looked up, then shrugged.

"Thinking about it. Cash is always fun," he replied. She smiled.

"Well, there's an opening here if your interested in waiting tables. One of the normal waiters just left for college, so we're short on waiters." He smiled.

"Cool, that sounds fun." Amber rolled her eyes. What a kiss up. "Well, as fun as working can be. I'll apply for it." She grinned.

"Cool." After taking their meal orders, she returned to the kitchen and shrugged her duty's off on the first girl she saw. Her shift had ended, she wasn't sticking around no matter how cute that kid was. Besides, she was getting paid for this part of her day too.

The owner of Rusty's Burgers had it stuck inside his head that if there was live music in the restraunt, more people would want to come. So he hired a band. A band which for whatever reason had no name, and Amber was part of. As it was mentioned before, Amber had only two things in common with her adoptive father Roger. The first was violence, the second, which in a way sort of contradicts the first, was music. For everything that man lacked, his singing seemed to make up for it. And then some. A demon with the voice of an angel. Oh the irony that no one could possibly get.

"There you are!" Drea exclaimed. "You had us worried!" Amber laughed.

"I'm right on time, what could you possibly have to worry about?" Drea didn't answer, just kept fiddling with the settings on her keyboard, then looked up with an expression that screamed _Can't you let me freak out in peace!_

"Stacey just called, she's got larengitis," PJ filled Amber in on why Drea was flipping out.

"you're kidding me!" PJ shook his head solemnly. Stacey was their band's lead singer. Drea tossed Amber a microphone. "What's this for?"

"It's called a microphone. You talk or sing or make random noises into it, and it amplifies them." Amber rolled her eyes.

"Why are you giving it to me you dolt!"

"Because we can't really do these songs the justice they deserve without a singer." Drea said, rolling her eyes right back at her. Honestly, she thought her friend was the dolt in this relationship. Amber promptly began to freak.

"WHAT? But- But I need to play the guitar!" Drea and PJ shrugged.

"Do both." She looked around the room frantically.

"Make Chad or PJ do it, you know I have stage fright!" She exclaimed, continuing to look desperately for their band's bass player. He walked into the room.

"Sure, I'll sing. But be warned, I only know the words to "Three Wheels On My Wagon."" Chad replied jokingly.

"Right there with ya buddy!" PJ laughed, giving his best friend a fist bump. Drea quit her fussing briefly to put her hands on her best friend's shoulders and focus her.

"Amber, you're the best singer of all of us, better than Stacey even. And don't you deny that, because she says so all the time. You need to get over your freaking stage fright because I need this cash man!" She shook Amber's shoulders frantically in an attempt to emphasize her point. "Now let's go, and blow these people's freaking minds!" Chad and PJ hooted and the four of them walked out.

Showtime. Amber gulped, put the microphone on its stand, then put the strap of her guitar around her neck. Everything was sort of a blur. She was sort of conscious of being on stage and Drea introducing the first song, then the next one, and the next. She was pretty sure they even played the songs too. The only thing she was sure happened was the first song they played, a favorite of hers. Her heart was thudding a mile an hour. _That's not normal man. God I hope there's a doctor out there. I think I'm gonna be sick! _Then the song started playing, she felt her fingers playing the chords on her guitar and then the words came out without permission.

**"I've heard there was a secret chord  
>That David played and it pleased the Lord<br>But you don't really care for music do you?  
>It goes like this<br>The fourth, the fifth,  
>The minor fall, the major lift<br>The baffled king composing hallelujah**

**"Hallelujah, hallelujah  
>Hallelujah, hallelujah<strong>

**"Your faith was strong but you needed proof  
>You saw her bathing on the roof<br>Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you  
>She tied you to a kitchen chair<br>She broke your throne, she cut your hair  
>And from your lips she drew the hallelujah<strong>

**"Hallelujah, hallelujah  
>Hallelujah, hallelujah" <strong>The chatter in the restraunt had died down quite a bit by this time; people were listening intently to the song. Not only did Amber really have a beautiful voice, but there was something in the way she sang this particular that had them completely entranced. That certain element also made Ralph and Leah's brains fuzzy, as if there was an almost memory in the back of their minds, some kind of connection they just couldn't make that had been bugging them since they first saw Amber that was just growing worse.

**"Baby I've been here before  
>I've seen this room, I've walked this floor<br>I used to live alone before I knew you  
>I've seen your flag on the marble arch<br>But love is not a victory march  
>It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah<strong>

**"Hallelujah, hallelujah  
>Hallelujah, hallelujah<strong>

**"There was a time when you let me know  
>What's really going on below<br>But now you never show it to me do you?  
>And remember when I moved in you<br>The holy dove was moving too  
>And every breath we drew was hallelujah<strong>

**"Hallelujah, hallelujah  
>Hallelujah, hallelujah" <strong>Something about this song made Amber's stage fright go away for a while. As soon as the other songs came, her courage was gone. She still sang, but she was terrified. This song had a memory, a distant memory, but a memory still. It was back when she was one or two years old. She didn't remember much, but she remembered a little red-headed girl who'd hold her in her lap and hold picture books up in front of her face, and there was a woman with bright green eyes just like her own that would sing this song to her. And then sometimes there was a really big man with red hair that used to sing along too. It was her only memory of her real family.

**"Maybe there's a God above  
>But all I ever learned from love<br>Is how to shoot at someone who outdrew you  
>It's not a cry that you hear at night<br>It's not somebody who has seen the light  
>It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah<strong>

**"Hallelujah, hallelujah  
>Hallelujah, hallelujah<strong>

**"You say I took the name in vain  
>I don't even know the name<br>But if I did, well really, what's it to you?  
>There's a blaze of light in every word<br>It doesn't matter which you heard  
>The holy or the broken hallelujah<strong>

**"Hallelujah, hallelujah  
>Hallelujah, hallelujah<strong>

**"I did my best, it wasn't much  
>I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch<br>I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you  
>And even though it all went wrong<br>I'll stand before the Lord of Song  
>With nothing on my tongue but hallelujah<strong>

**"Hallelujah, hallelujah  
>Hallelujah, hallelujah<br>Hallelujah, hallelujah  
>Hallelujah, hallelujah<br>Hallelujah, hallelujah  
>Hallelujah, hallelujah<br>Hallelujah, hallelujah  
>Hallelujah, hallelujah" <strong>Amber paused for just a second to do what she'd promised herself she wouldn't do: look up at the crowd. Every pair of eyes were trained on her face. Not a single person seemed to dislike her voice. She grinned a little.

**"Hallelujah."**

* * *

><p><strong>Wow. 3,248 words not including that author's note at the beginning. May I have a round of applause here?<br>Roger: No  
>Hammsters: Quit being such a poo Roger<br>Roger: ...No  
>Hammsters: Grrrrrr. Just ignore him. Leah and Ralph are here! Yay! Sorry, I just had to put that song in there to tie into The Fate of the Boys. I wonder if RalPh and Leah will figure it out... Hope you liked it please review!<strong>


	5. Chapter 5

**(nervously) heheh. Heeeeeeeeeeeey guys. Well, um, you see, the thing is, I've got this, um... You know what, I think this whole thing would be better stated in an indifferent business letter (we're working on them in school and I could really use the practice.**

**Dear valued reader,  
>I would like to begin by thanking you for taking the time to read <span>(insert story name here). <span>It means a lot to me. I hope you've enjoyed the brief time you have had with it. It is my great displeasure to have to inform you...**

**Oh who am I kidding?**

**Business letters suck and nothing is better stated in them. I'm just gonna cut to the chase here. This story has kicked the bucket. Gone to see the king. Hasta la vista, buh-bye, _no longer with us. _Got it? You got it? Now don't take this the wrong way. I haven't, like, murdered the characters or anything. And this story will return. I'm just putting it on hold until I've gotten a few other stories out of the way. You understand right? I'm writing _eight stories _at the moment, and since I'm in eighth grade I've got finals and sports and high school testing and graduation preparations, I just don't have as much time for writing as I've had in the past. I promise I'll get back to this story as soon as I can. But while I'm otherwise occupied, please check out my other stories, they're really good! I think...**

**Gallagher Girls:  
><strong>**1. Finding Answers (complete)  
>2. That Was Then- sequel to FA (in progress)<strong>

**Lord of the Flies:  
><strong>**1. The Fate of the Boys (complete)  
>2. Neverland (complete)<br>3. Teenagers (in progress)  
>4. His Sleeping Beauty (in progress)<strong>

**Misc. Books:  
><strong>**1. To Be Extraordinary- original story (in progress)**

**Later!  
>~Hammsters<strong>


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